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- She was put on trial by Bishop Pierre Cauchon on accusations of heresy, which included blaspheming by wearing men's clothes, acting upon visions that were demonic, and refusing to submit her words and deeds to the judgment of the church.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc
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The Trial of Joan of Arc was a 15th century legal proceeding against Joan of Arc, a French military leader under Charles VII during the Hundred Years' War. During the siege of Compiègne in 1430, she was captured by Burgundian forces and subsequently sold to their English allies.
- Overview
- Joan of Arc's Trial Was an International Sensation
- Death, Then Sainthood
- HISTORY Vault: Joan of Arc: Soul on Fire
The French heroine and saint was labeled a heretic, fraud, sorceress and cross-dresser.
The English claimed many offenses against Joan of Arc. But when they burned her at the stake in Rouen, France on May 30, 1431, they not only immortalized the 19-year-old, but made her a national symbol for the French cause during the long-fought Hundred Years’ War.
Born a peasant in a small French village, the illiterate girl claimed to hear divine voices and see visions of St. Michael, St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Margaret of Antioch from the age of 13. Their message: Help Charles VII, heir of Charles VI, be named the rightful king of France.
Convincing Charles to let her fight—and dressed as a man—Joan led the liberation of Orleans, triumphed with other victories against the English, and soon Charles VII was crowned. But a series of missteps, including her failure to liberate Paris followed, and on May 23, 1430, she was captured by the Duke of Burgundy’s men, jailed for more than a year and put on trial for charges including heresy, witchcraft and violating divine law for dressing like a man.
At the time of Joan’s trial, which began January 9, 1431, her notoriety could not have been greater, writes historian Helen Castor in her 2015 book Joan of Arc: A History.
“As the opening of the trial record noted, ‘The report has now become well known in many places that this woman, utterly disregarding what is honourable in the female sex, breaking the bounds of modesty, and forgetting all female decency, has disgracefully put on the clothing of the male sex, a striking and vile monstrosity. And what is more, her presumption went so far that she dared to do, say and disseminate many things beyond and contrary to the Catholic faith and injurious to the articles of its orthodox belief.’
Perhaps no event during the Middle Ages created a bigger international sensation, writes Daniel Hobbins in his 2005 book, The Trial of Joan of Arc. “‘Such wonders she performed,’ wrote the German theologian Johannes Nider, ‘that not just France but every Christian kingdom stands amazed.’”
According to the trial transcript, Joan was questioned repeatedly not only about the voices she heard, but on why she chose to dress as a man.
“It is both more seemly and proper to dress like this when surrounded by men, than wearing a woman’s clothes,” she told the judges. “While I have been in prison, the English have molested me when I was dressed as a woman. (She weeps.) I have done this to defend my modesty.”
Joan of Arc, as painted by artist Jules Bastien-Lepage, in the moment when Saints Michael, Margaret, and Catherine appear to her in her parents’ garden, rousing her to fight the English invaders in the Hundred Years War.
During the trial, St. Mary’s University notes, Joan faced six public and nine private examinations, culminating in The Twelve Articles of Accusation, which included the charges of dressing in men’s clothing and hearing voices of the divine. The church officials found her guilty, urging her to repent in order to save her life.
The trial itself was an ecclesiastical procedure covered under canon law—a heresy investigation carried out as an inquisition, according to Hobbins.
On May 24 Joan signed a retraction, and, on the condition she would dress as a woman, her death sentence was reduced to life in prison. But four days later, she said the voices had returned and she was again found dressed in men’s clothing. All 27 trial masters pronounced her a relapsed heretic.
According to Hobbin’s trial translation, they declared: “Whenever the deadly poison of heresy infects a member of the Church, who is then transformed into a member of Satan, utmost care must be taken to keep the contagion of the disease from spreading to other parts of the mystical body of Christ.”
A statue of Joan of Arc in the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, where she was beatified.
“We say and determine that you have falsely imagined revelations and divine apparitions, that you are a pernicious temptress, presumptuous, credulous, rash, superstitious, a false prophetess, a blasphemer against God and his saints, scornful of God in his sacraments, a transgressor of divine law, sacred doctrine, and ecclesiastical decrees; that you are seditious, cruel, apostate, schismatic, straying in many ways from our faith; and that in these ways you have rashly sinned against God and his Church.”
On May 30, 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.
The Hundred Years’ War waged on until 1453, with the French finally beating back the English invaders. In 1450, Joan’s guilty verdict was overturned by a Rehabilitation Trial ordered by Charles VII. Joan’s legend grew, and, in 1909 she was beatified in the famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris by Pope Pius X. In 1920, she was canonized by Pope Benedict XV.
A teenage girl so dangerous, she had to be burned at the stake. Discover how an illiterate peasant girl took command of an army and placed a king on the throne of France.
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- Lesley Kennedy
They said her claim to hear divine voices constituted blasphemy. They accused her of claiming to follow the direct command of God from these voices in order to go against the Church itself. They said she indecently wore men's clothes, and falsely claimed to be assured of salvation.
Quick answer: Joan of Arc was executed for heresy. She was burned at the stake by the authorities because, as well as being a heretic, it was believed that she was guilty of witchcraft. In actual...
Spanish heretics suffered this penalty during the Inquisition, as did French disbelievers and heretics such as St. Joan of Arc, who was condemned and burned in 1431 in Rouen, France.
- Geoffrey Abbott
The Joan of Arc trial was rife with scandal, and she was convicted for what she called a small detail. Learn why the Joan of Arc trial is so contentious.
Though her offenses against the Lancastrian monarchy were common knowledge, Joan was brought to trial before a church court because the theologists at the University of Paris, as arbiter in matters concerning the faith, insisted that she be tried as a heretic.
